The Nashville-based nonprofit's one-day event will expand on its mission to build a better relationship between faith and technology, said Micah Redding, the association's executive director.

"I hope a lot of people who are new to this conversation will come away with a bigger, more expansive sense of what our future might hold and what we're capable of and feel motivated to work for a better future and not just kind of let it happen to us," Redding said.

The association describes transhumanism as an intellectual movement that thinks science and technology should be ethically used to improve the world. Christian transhumanists think the same thing because of their faith.

Founded in 2014, the association tries to foster a better conversation between religion and technology through online forums, a podcast and now this conference.

There is some wariness between the science and technology world and the Christian community. The association is trying to overcome the stigma on both sides, Redding said.

"My theology says that God created us as scientific and technological beings and therefore scientific process is God's ordained way for us to come to understand the universe," Redding said.

"We don't have the right as people of faith to just reject what science says when it doesn't line up with our theology. We actually have to engage with it."

A small group of people are heavily investing in ambitious projects, like putting people on Mars and creating brain prosthetics, that would transform humanity, Redding said. But billions of religious people are not part of that conversation, he said.

"I think that's a recipe for a bad future for our civilization if the people who are kind of pioneering whatever the future of humanity will become are not very conversant with the lived experience of a majority of humanity," Redding said.

On Saturday, the keynote address at the association's Faith, Technology & the Future conference will be delivered by Aubrey de Grey, a scientist working to create biological immortality.

Other speakers include Scott Hawley, a Belmont University professor, looking at Christian responses to the rise of artificial intelligence and musician Derek Webb, who will perform songs from, CTRL, his A.I.-based concept album.

Redding is not sure how many people will attend Saturday's conference, but would like to see it become an annual event. The association has roughly 575 members worldwide, but engages regularly with a community of about a couple thousand, he said.

As of Thursday, 120 people had registered for the conference, but same-day registration is available, Redding said.